Bombay Talkie

I agree with Dilip, it is an OK movie, but the DVD that I got from my library had an added feature - a half hour of dancer Helen. She is really over the top. So skip the movie and enjoy Helen!!!!! I have to give ten lines of text, so here goes. The opulent sets and costumes of the movie were a definite plus, a nice look at the modern wealthy Indian life style. While not great, the movie's plot did generate some interest. For me high lights of the Helen feature were her cabaret dance with an caged afro-wigged "wild man" and a portrayal of a drunken bar patron at the end. During the course of this half hour she dances through several world dance genres.

An early film by my favorite trio Ivory, Merchant and Jhabvala, failed to light my senses in this nonsensical musical farce. The additional content on the DVD is much better with a feature on the very talented Helen and the customary chat with the trio on making of this movie. This film seems to insult everyone: a very uncaring and self indulgent white authoress, a very lustful Indian actor with no scruples, a charlatan guru, and a mediocre poet with an obsession to murder. Mix this lot in a movie and you get the customary tale of confusion and bad acting. Some moments of the film are memorable including the beginning scene on the giant typewriter, the incredible shots of the staircase at the hotel, and the general view into Bombay film making of the 70s. The ending is, well, rather abrupt, and I was glad it was. Rent it just for the extras on the DVD.

This movie is about the love affair of an western writer and an Indian film star. I liked it very much and the point I found most interesting is the western craving for eastern spirituality exemplified by the visit and internship of the heroine in an Indian guru. The movie presents the guru in a savage light, as a self-promoting socialite proud of his western connections. Whether it is questionable that all the exponents of eastern spirituality as such cranks the one in the movie is, thus a satirist perspective is adopted. The characters are shallow and self-absorbed and their lives hollow, the movie pointing to the emptiness of stardom.The end is tragic and the world-view exposed is close to that of Ecclesiastes. Despite that I found the couple of the protagonists very engaging since as Oscar Wilde said only shallow people refuse to judge by appearances.

This wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but it was pretty awful, and I would only recommend watching it expecting the worst so that perhaps you are pleasantly surprised by it. My least favorite thing was the main female character, Lucia, and her self-obsessed, insensitive, manipulative, passive-aggressive way of behaving. She was a terrible person and also looked much older than her supposed 32 years of age! It was difficult to understand the motivations or behaviors of most of the characters and the scenes/events seemed rather disconnected. I also was hoping for a lot more of the Bollywood movie industry and got very little of that except for the opening scenes. I'm not a fan of this movie.

Lucia Lane (Jennifer Kendal), self-absorbed and demanding, is a British author who has come to Bombay to research her next novel. She falls in love with Vikram (played by Kendal's real-life husband Shashi Kapoor), a younger, popular Bollywood hero. The already complicated relationship is worsened by the fact that Vikram's wife (Aparna Sen) knows of the affair, and that his friend, Hari (Zia Mohyeddin), is in love with Lucia, and roiling with jealousy.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has written a screenplay that is both credible and compelling, with dark undertones. One simply can't like Lucia and Vikram, and yet one must continue to watch as they head towards disaster. As with many Merchant Ivory films, this one relies heavily on the actors' facial expressions to show emotions and set the mood, and these four main actors do an excellent job. Overall, it's a rather unpleasant movie that will simultaneously grip and repel, and keep the viewer watching till the very end.